Chuck Chuck Baby

Helen (Louise Brearley) lives a seemingly hopeless life with her (ex?) husband Gary (Celyn Jones) his girlfriend, thier baby and Gary's bed-ridden and dying mother (the excellent Sorcha Cusack), for whom Helen is the principal carer, and who is the only one in the house who treats Helen with any decency. Neither Gary nor his girlfriend work, and Gary takes most of Helen's wages.

Helen works in a chicken factory, and it's only her friendship with a group of co-workers that keep Helen from despair.

As an aside, if chicken factories are really like that, I'm never eating chicken again. I assume (hope?) that it was budgetary constraints that were responsible for the minimalist set.

Helen's life is thrown into turmoil by the return of Joanne, daughter of Helen's recently-deceased next-door neighbour. Helen had a lesbian crush on Joanne when they were at school together, though she never had the courage even to talk to her.

Joanne, it seems, felt the same way. Now she draws Helen out, and she experiences simple pleasures and the first moments of true happiness for many years. Now she has to decide between her old life and a potential new one.

The whole film is beautifully observed, from the dreary street that doubles as a prison for its occupants to the earthy cameraderie of the factory women. A few musical numbers are worked into the narrative, to great effect.